January 13, 2005

Georgian Breakaway Republic of Abkhazia Elects President

Like South Ossetia, Abkhazia wishes to leave Georgia and become part of the Russian Federation. The election changes none of this. While war between Russian and Georgia is not imminent, it still remains a real possibility. Xinhua:

Opposition leader Sergei Bagapsh won a landslide victory in Wednesday's presidential election in Georgia's breakaway republic of Abkhazia, the republic's Central Electoral Commission (CEC) announced Thursday.

CEC chief Batal Tabagua said Bagapsh won 91.1 percent of the vote, demolishing his only rival, the People's Party leader Yakub Lakoba, who took just 4.5 percent, the Itar-Tass news agency reported....

Abkhazia has enjoyed de facto independence from Georgia since fighting a separatist war in the early 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The region has been seeking to integrate with Russia against the wishes of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili who has vowed to regain control over the republic and another rebel region, South Ossetia.

Bagapsh said Thursday that any future dialogue between Abkhaziaand Georgia must be held under the premise that both sides are equal and independent states.

He regarded with great optimism relations with Russia and advocated further integration with Moscow, stressing that Abkhaziawill have no future without financial and legal assistance from Russia.

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